A CRUISE ship has been hit by a nasty outbreak of norovirus, affecting 277 people onboard Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas.The liner is one of the largest vessels of its kind in the world and the holiday will now end early.

One of the largest cruise liners in the world has been infected with norovirus as it pulled into port in Jamaica. Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas, which is currently home to 9,000 guests, put a ban on passengers leaving the vessel as they drafted in emergency medication. A total of 277 people are confirmed to have been struck down by the infection, which is a winter stomach bug that causes vomiting and diarrhoea. The vessel was transporting guests to the sunshine hotspot from Florida and a spokesperson has confirmed its route will now end early.

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Oasis of the Seas will return to Port Canaveral a day early after an episode of gastrointestinal illness

Royal Caribbean spokesperson

It docked in Falmouth, which is in the northern side of Jamaica, before the illness was flagged to staff.

Its passengers were in the midst of a seven day cruise around the Caribbean islands.

It is unclear whether the cruise ship was in quarantine.

Yet following the illness. it has been confirmed the cruise route will switch up and finish a day early.

A spokesperson told Express.co.uk: "Oasis of the Seas will return to Port Canaveral a day early after an episode of gastrointestinal illness.

"A total of 277 guests and crew members have been affected since the ship departed on Jan 6 — about 3.3 percent of the people aboard the ship. All of the ship’s guests will receive full refunds of their cruise fare paid.

We think the right thing to do is to get everyone home early rather than have guests worry about their health. Returning on Saturday also gives us more time to completely clean and sanitize the ship before her next sailing.

"Our guests sail with us to have great holidays, and we are sorry this cruise fell short."

Cruise norovirus outbreak: A bug has struck the Royal Caribbean Oasis of the Seas (Image: WIKIPEDIA CC)

Owen Torres, a spokesman for Royal Caribbean, told FLORIDA TODAY of the outbreak which happened on Wednesday and said: “Those affected by the short-lived illness are being treated by our ship’s medical team with over-the-counter medication.

“Meanwhile, we are bringing additional medical staff on board and we’re engaging in intensive sanitary procedures to minimize the risk of any further issues.”

Meanwhile, those on-board the ship have praise the efforts of Royal Caribbean staff for tackling the outbreak.

Twitter user Mathew Michael, who is currently on board, told how the crew were doing an “A star” job.

He documented their efforts in a short video, uploaded alongside the caption: “At this rate the ship will be spic n’ span by Sunday night.

“I believe they called this level 3- alpha alpha alpha alert on the loud speaker – the entire #RoyalCaribbean crew is doing an awesome job, A+.”

He then added the jokey tagline: “Who ya gonna call, germ busters,” and an emoji icon.

The scenes on his video showed staff working together to spray the floors of the guest areas.